solar bus wire

Finding my (electric) wheels

Hi am just wondering if anyone has used solar bus wire when making a battery for their ebike? been looking at some and seems to be perfect stuff 5mm width 0.2mm thick and is copper covered with a solder layer but i can`t find any info on what is the max amps/watts this could carry, I am going to build 2 new batteries soon and wondered if it was any good

Interesting, that would be a worry, unless there are spot welders that already weld tinned copper to steel maybe for the solar cells? Technically thats probably not true welding as several different metals are involved....
Does anyone know how wiring is attached to cells in the Solar business?
I had a quick look on the IOT and it appears to be soldering, which is unacceptable heat wise of course.
Can anyone clear that up, maybe test a spot welder on a few defective cells?
regards
Andy

Esteemed Pedelecer

Solar panels have tinned pads to which you solder the tinned bus wire. It's a completely diferent system and won't work for 18650s. For 18650s in an ebike battery you need pure nickel strips, which you weld to them.

Finding my (electric) wheels

Solar panels have tinned pads to which you solder the tinned bus wire. It's a completely diferent system and won't work for 18650s. For 18650s in an ebike battery you need pure nickel strips, which you weld to them.

not entirely true, copper works even better on 18650`s than nickle with less heat/wasted energy and the bus wire has copper inside 5mm x1.6mm and 0.4mm of solder on outside. Also with the right solder Iron soldering 18650`s is not a issue, The problem i think is that the bus wire maybe won`t be able to take the amps i want to push through it. I can`t find any info on what it can actually take. There are a couple of vids on youtube who have used bus wire for smaller packs than i would build but am still dubious on what the max amps etc it can take.

Esteemed Pedelecer

It seems that you know a lot about making ebike batteries then. I can't understand why you're asking if you know all the answers. Have you tried welding with copper? If you think it's so good try it and tell us all about it, then go and get the nickel wire. The same applies to soldering the 18650s. If you think it's going to work, try it. It's your money!

Finding my (electric) wheels

Have you tried wrlding with copper? If you think it's so good try it and tell us all about it, then go and get the nickel wire. The same applies to soldering the 18650s. If you think it's going to work, try it. It's your money!

Yeah have soldered copper wire to the first 4 or 5 battery packs i made, I used the core from twin and earth and tinned the spots to connect to the 18650s on bench before putting on the batteries 800F solder iron is key though. i Then made last 10-15 batteries with a homebrew spot welder, am always looking for a different way though so was hoping someone would have the info on the specs of the buswire i don`t have the tools to find out max amps/watts i can put through it so was hoping someone had maybe tested it before. I would honestly prefer to have copper on my battery packs than nickle

Finding my (electric) wheels

there is also another reason why i want to be able to build a battery of this type, i plan to try a very long distance ebike tour and would be good to have a easily repairable battery that i only need extra wire and a gas solder iron to repair

Esteemed Pedelecer

To me, it just doesn’t make sense. You can't spotweld it because the tin/lead coating has no mechanical srength and very low fatigue resistance, so is very likely to break from vibration. Copper is the same. Also, it has to be coated to stop it from corroding, but that's not a problem if you used the tinned stuff.

It's a great idea to be able to resolder all your soldered joints that fail due to vibration, but wouldn't it be better to use the right stuff so that they don't fail? Sure, in the past, we used to hear of the odd bad spotwelds on batteries, but that's extremely rare these days, and whenyou do it yourself,you can check the quality as you go.

Then you add the risk of compromising a cell by overheating when you solder them. How do you know how much you damaged them? Are you going to test the capacity of every cell group after soldering? Is it 99% or 95% of what it should be? How have you affected their life? Are they only going to live half as long? It's all very well saying how great a pack looks after you soldered it up, but how great is it compared with a spot-welded one?

Surely, if you're going to make a few batteries, it makes sense to get the proper stuff and do it properly.

You can buy really good ready-made batteries for less than you can make them, so I find it fairly questionable why anybody would want to make one these days unless you need something special. I still make a few batteries every year, but they're always because I can't buy what I need, like special size or shape, but by the time I've bought everything to do it properly, they never work out cheap.

Finding my (electric) wheels

my batteries are 20s 8p on my bike so not readily available. every battery i have built for friends are awkward shapes to fit frames,I also have a good 18650 battery source. Anyway is not the question i was originally asking, Just wanted to know if anyone knows the max amp/watts the solar bus wire can take to see if it is even possible, If not i will go ahead and nickle spot weld

Thats good to know, i have found some bus tape at 8mmx0.2mm advertised has carrying 30amp but it is so much cheaper than nickle strip that i could double up and still save £40 on a battery.i may build one from recycled cells and see if it lasts some banging around, am sure it may help others building their packs if it does because it would be the easier way of soldering.

Esteemed Pedelecer

I'm totally confused now. You'd rather spend £14 per meter to buy nickel strip than the £1.50 a meter that I use, but you don't mind running the risk of compromising your battery completely by using unsuitable tinned copper strip because it's cheaper. Did I misunderstand something?

In case it helps, here's nickel strip from a supplier that has a proven reputation.

Esteemed Pedelecer

The nickel which vfr has linked to although uses the word plate in the title doesn't mean it is plated nickel. China uses some strange descriptions and plate just refers to a flat thin strip. Further down the page it does give purity as 9.96%.

I buy my pure nickel off Ann/Ann Battery on Aliexp and they often use the word 'plate' in the description, all the nickel I get I test/cut a piece grind the surface and let it sit in saline for a day or two. Have yet to get any plated rubbish

Finding my (electric) wheels

The nickel which vfr has linked to although uses the word plate in the title doesn't mean it is plated nickel. China uses some strange descriptions and plate just refers to a flat thin strip. Further down the page it does give purity as 9.96%.

I buy my pure nickel off Ann/Ann Battery on Aliexp and they often use the word 'plate' in the description, all the nickel I get I test/cut a piece grind the surface and let it sit in saline for a day or two. Have yet to get any plated rubbish

would be nice to get some cheaper, Am going to try the tinned copper route anyway and maybe put some probes on it and try real world testing as can program controller on amp draw etc . found some 1.2mm round core copper that is tinned meant to take 45amp so in theory it should be able to work. will see anyway